


Team, meet Wheatley!

by Anonymous



Series: Team, meet [redacted]! [2]
Category: Portal (Video Game), Team Fortress 2
Genre: Gen, Now with actual plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:54:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27655085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: She could do this. After all this was her first mission, surely it couldn‘t go that wrong.Sequel to „Team, meet Chell!“
Series: Team, meet [redacted]! [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2022110
Comments: 7
Kudos: 41
Collections: Anonymous





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I just really love Valve‘s Portal and Team Fortress 2!  
> So I wrote another little story, inspired by it, just for fun!

Chell absently let her fingers drum against the surface of her handheld portal device.

She was nervous. It was like she was once again stuck in a lift, desperately waiting for the doors to open to yet another deadly test chamber.

Only this time she wasn‘t stuck alone in the small space of the neverending lift, but rather in the back of a truck together with Scout, who just couldn‘t seem to shut up. „The bomb exploded, but we didn‘t die because of all that bread! Anyways that‘s how I got Miss Pauling to go on a date with me! Well … we‘re still planning on doing it. She‘s a busy lady and has to take care of a lot of business. So she never really had any time until-“

„Scout.“, she put a hand against her temple, „You already told me this story three times.“

„Yes, I know. But I kinda have this plan now. Ya know how I used the briefcase alarm to get her to come over to the base? What if this time I just-“

A couple of weeks ago she would have just let him keep talking. Back then she was always quiet and tried to say as little as possible. But over time she had become more outgoing and started talking back, especially when it came to Scout.

„Scout, I‘m really trying to concentrate here. Could you be quiet for three minutes!“

Scout let out an annoyed huff and let himself fall back against the wall of the truck, crossing his arms.

Chell welcomed the resulting silence, until it was interrupted by the sound of Scout bouncing one of his legs.

„Scout.“

„What?“

„Stop it.“

„I‘m not even doing anything!“

„You-“, she let out a frustrated groan and leaned over to the door connecting the back of the truck to the two driver‘s seats in the front. She pulled it open, „Please tell me we are nearly there.“

„You kids will have to get along for 30 more minutes, I‘m afraid.“, Spy took another  drag of his cigarette and turned over a page in his magazine, „We would be there sooner if the bushman could drive faster than the speed limit for once.“

Next to him Sniper didn‘t take his eyes off the road, „Well, if I drive too fast we will look suspicious.“

„No one is driving at the actual speed limit. Not going faster is actually more suspicious.“, retorted Spy.

It looked like their bickering was nearly as bad as the one of Chell and Scout, „Can‘t we switch? Scout is driving me crazy.“ 

Spy only let out a sarcastic laugh, „No.“

Chell still had a bit of hope, „Come on, you said it‘s only 30 more minutes.“

„30 minutes alone with Scout? No, thank you.“

„Scout can hear you.“, came an offended call from the back.

Sniper did an apologetic shrug, „Sorry, I‘m driving.“

And that was that. Chell returned to her seat and crossed her arms.

„Is this because of the mission?“, asked Scout, „Because you‘re usually not that easily annoyed.“

Chell let out another huff and tried to ignore the man sitting across from her.

Scout‘s face suddenly twisted into a knowing grin, „Oh I know what’s going on. You're nervous!“

„I‘m not nervous.“, muttered Chell, but she was biting her lip and not looking relaxed at all.

„Admit it! It‘s your first mission, of course you're nervous!“

She would never say it, especially not in front of Scout. Chell had been nervous before the tests, however right now she felt a different kind of nervousness. Unlike the everchanging test chambers this was a planned out mission. A mission they would do as a team and frankly that scared her the most. It was one thing to work on your own and only be responsible for yourself, but others relying on her? It was a new kind of pressure.

„I get it! I still remember my first mission. Nearly died, but totally saved the day and capped the enemy intel.“, Scout, in his typical Scout-fashion, started monologing again. Telling her all about the absolutely amazing things he totally managed to pull off on his first mission.

This time instead of complaining about it she just tried to tune it out and instead focus on her own thoughts.

She once again started to go through the briefing Pauling had given them earlier that day. Apparently Gray Gravel Co. had been suspiciously quiet for some time now. The usually anticipated robot attacks targeting different Mann Co. locations had abruptly stopped and one Gray Gravel Co. building in the east had seen an increase of transports.

So, the small team, consisting of Sniper, Spy, Scout and her, was sent to investigate. It was only supposed to be a recon mission, a perfect test run for Chell who had never seen any real combat, besides the occasional turret encounter, until now. She would get Spy and Scout into the parameter with the help of her portal gun. Then Scout was meant to, well, scout the whole compound, while Spy would try to get inside and find out what Gray Mann was planning. Sniper would stay at a distance, ready to interfer if neccersary and be ready to get them out of there as their designated driver.

A rather simple and in theory harmless mission, Pauling seemed certain that it would be an easy task and that they‘d be back by dawn. Chell trusted the other woman, as well as her new teammates, but she just couldn‘t shake off the feeling that something would go terribly wrong.

She was snapped out of it by the commotion happening in the front of the truck.

„Are you using the turn signal?“

„Well, we are leaving the road. You have to-“

„We are in the middle of a desert. No one else is on this godforsaken road!“

Chell and Scout both looked up as Spy entered the back of the truck through the door, „Next time I am going to ask Heavy to drive us.“

„Oi, what’s your problem? I‘m a good driver.“

The van came to a stop, they must have arrived at their destination.

Spy rummaged through one of the crates, scattered throughout the back of the truck, and handed each of them an earpiece, „Remember, this is a stealth mission. They are not even supposed to realise that we were even there.“

Chell gave him a solemn nod, while Scout just did an annoyed shrug.

„Alright, let's just get this over with.“, Spy stepped out of the back of the van and straightened his tie. Scout grabbed his shotgun, while Chell holstered her portal device.

Sniper gave her an encouraging pat on the back, „Good luck and have fun!“

Spy rolled his eyes, „Please don't fall asleep and keep the engine running.“

„Ha, me falling asleep? I'm like an owl, mate!“

She could do this. After all this was her first mission, surely it couldn‘t go that wrong.


	2. Chapter 2

The van was parked behind a road sign advertising Gray Gravel Co., with a comically large Gray Mann promising the greatest gravel in the country.  
Once they were sure that no one had noticed their arrival, the 3 person team made its way over to a small ledge, where they finally caught their first glimpse of the target location.  
This particular Gray Gravel Co. facility was located in a small valley, surrounded by a barbed wire fence and heavily guarded by a bunch of familiar looking robots. Miss Pauling had provided them with blueprints of the whole complex and an evaluated plan of all the workers movement patterns. A small storage shack in the east was nearly never used and the robots rarely patrolled around it, making it the perfect place to enter. 

„Alright, time to show off that fancy gun of yours!“, Scout was crouching besides her, but she had a hard time making out his face in the darkness of the night. Their red clothes helped them blend into the background of the red sand of the desert. Chell was more than grateful that she had gotten a new jumpsuit. For one thing she couldn‘t wait to set her old Aperture one aflame and on the other hand the faded red was somewhat stealthier than that obnoxious orange colour. The addition of shoes was also a huge improvement, being barefoot on the rocky ground would have been a complete nightmare.  
Chell activated her Portal Gun and carefully aimed at the small shack. She recalled her sniping training and slowed her breath, focused and fired. The small blue energy ball flew through the night and hit the wall of the small shack. A blue portal opened up and she let out a shaky breath. So far so good.  
Next thing she did was aim her gun at the ground, opening an orange portal. She stepped through and felt the center of gravity shift momentarily as she reappeared on the other side. She carefully looked around, but could see no robot patrolling the nearby area. Once she was sure that they were clear she looked up at the small hill, from where she had come from. She could still see parts of the aforementioned road sign, but she could make out neither Spy, nor Scout, nor the orange portal. She turned back, looking at her teammates, „Everything clear. You can come through.“ Scout did a careful step and cautiously walked through the portal, closely followed by Spy.  
„That still feels super weird, but it‘s kinda impressive.“, the compliment earned him a small smile from Chell.  
„Scout, focus. We‘re on enemy territory.“, Spy walked to the side of the shack and peered around the corner, observing the main building, „I‘ll go inside. Scout, you go find out what they have stored in all these transports and crates. Porter, you stay here and watch the east side, while Sniper focuses on the west from his vantage point.“ This was the first time that Spy had called her by the class name that she had picked with some help from Scout. Things were getting serious.  
„If something goes wrong, comm the others. We‘ll meet up again in exactly one hour.“   
Scout agreed with a short, „Got it.“, but Spy had already turned invisible and was nowhere to be seen. „Typical …“, muttered Scout as he turned around to Chell for one last time, „Don‘t get caught. You gotta get us out of here.“  
She gave him a raised eyebrow, „Only if you don‘t get caught, because you can‘t keep quiet for more than three minutes.“  
He only laughed in return, gave her a small wave, „Sure thing.“ and then he was gone as well.

Now that she was on her own, she looked for a good place to observe the parameter. The storage shack was two stories high. In front of one of the windows was a small ledge. She quickly repositioned the blue portal and made her way up to the second floor. From there she was able to look around the corner of the building and observe the other structures, but she also had a good view on the edge of the parameter. She deactivated her gun, causing the blue and orange portal to vanish. Due to the Engineer‘s updates on her device she was now able to dematerialize them at will, which was rather useful as the orange and blue glow could be somewhat noticeable.  
Chell pressed her back against the wall and tried to blend into the shadows as best as she could. Now all she had to do was wait and look out for anything suspicious happening around her. Lucky for her, nothing really happened and the only thing breaking the silence were the occasional comments from Scout that came through her comm device. 

After 50 minutes she finally let herself relax a little. The hour was nearly up and they could soon return back to the base. That‘s when she suddenly heard voices approaching.   
„That was a complete waste of our time.“, was the first thing she picked up. Chell was frozen in place. She was still facing the other direction, but if she turned around now, she would be easily spotted by the approaching party.  
„Well, I‘m sorry I couldn‘t help! But you were all really rude, if you may have been a bit nicer maybe I-“,the second voice sounded a little nervous and had an accent she had never heard before.  
„Could you stop talking! God, can‘t we get him to stop somehow?“  
That‘s when yet another voice said, „Wouldn‘t know how. Just knock him out?“  
„No no no no no, please don't knock me out!“, the second voice sounded incredibly panicked.  
Number one just scoffed and said, „I wish, but he might be useful later on. If we don‘t find something better we can still use his code.“  
They were now nearly at the shack. Chell hold her breath, fearing that they might notice her otherwise.   
„Come on, open the door. Gray Mann wants some progress in the morning. He wants to use that Aperture tech as soon as possible.“  
The door opened up and they all went inside. Chell tried to calm herself. Had they really just said the name of the facility. No, it couldn‘t be possible. She had escaped that place, she was free.   
With shaky fingers she opened up the comm channel, „Porter here. 3 people just entered the shack.“ She really hoped that the others wouldn't hear any panic in her voice.  
Scout was the first to respond, „What? I thought that thing was out of use!“  
Sniper answered in a much calmer tone, „What are they doing?“  
„I couldn‘t see them. I just heard three voices and it sounded like two were working for Gray Mann, the other one-“, she stopped, trying to recall the conversation that she had just witnessed. Voice number 2 was scared of the others and was definitely not a part of the group. But what was he doing here? It had sounded like he had information about the facility that the others desperately needed. „I don‘t know, they sounded like they wanted to get him to talk. They need information about something, I-“  
The door below her opened again and she immediately shut her mouth. „Porter? Porter, what‘s wrong?“, Sniper sounded concerned at the abrupt end of the conversation.  
She could hear voice 1 and 3 as they left the building, „Just watch, he‘ll talk some more after we leave him alone for a couple of days. Not being able to talk to anyone is going to drive that thing crazy.“ „I‘m not so sure about that.“ „Wanna bet?“   
The voices were getting quieter the further away from the building they got and Chell risked a small peek. She could see two people in white lab coats walk down the small path to the main building.  
„Porter!“  
„Sorry, two people just left the building.“, below her she could see that the door hadn‘t fully closed yet. In that moment Chell made a split second decision, „I‘m going in.“  
She jumped down from the small ledge, the knee replacements gently cushioning the impact.  
„Porter, that is not your task! Stay where you are.“, Spy sounded angry, but at the moment she didn‘t really care about the repercussions of her actions.  
This was about Aperture. This was personal.  
She caught the door before it could fall completely shut and quickly stepped inside. „I‘m in. I‘m going to look for the other person.“  
Spy said something in french, Chell was pretty sure that it must have been a curse, „Scout, come back to the rendezvous asap. We‘re meeting up with Porter and then we are getting out of here.”  
Scout, who had been uncharacteristically quiet up until this point, agreed and told Spy that he was on his way.

Meanwhile Chell had already made her way further into the building. The corridor led to 3 different doors and a small stairway leading up to the second floor. Since the scientists had exited the building so quickly they could have never made it up the stairs. The mysterious third person must be on this floor. She tried opening the first door, but it was locked and so was the second. Lucky for her, the third one opened without a problem and she stepped inside. Chell was greeted by multiple storage racks, filled to the brim with different types of boxes, gadgets and papers.  
This didn‘t look like a place where you would keep another person hostage. She was about to leave the room and try to somehow open the other doors, when she heard a small rustling sound. She stopped in her tracks and turned around. Chell went back to the first shelf and carefully leaned around its corner, just as the pitch black room was suddenly illuminated by a bright blue light.


	3. Chapter 3

„Oh, you came back! I‘m so sorry I said those things! I must have been a bit nervous, with all the tests and such. Otherwise I would have never said that! Smelly humans? I don‘t even have a nose! How should I know if you smell good or bad? I didn‘t really think and I just-“, the rambling suddenly stopped, „Wait. You‘re a different human.“

Chell was frozen in place. On one of the shelves sat a round Aperture core. It reminded her of the morality cores that were attached to  _ her _ . Although this core seemed to be a somewhat older model. Instead of the white smooth casing of the other cores, this one had a rough gray case that was covered in a multitude of welds and scratches.

His one blue eye turned to the side, as if he were tilting his head, „Who are you?“

That was the voice she had heard, voice number 2. But now that she was closer she could pick out the differences that she hadn‘t heard before. Although it sounded human there was a small artificial edge to the distinct syllables. Overall he sounded way more human and emotional than  _ her _ . No wonder that she had mistaken the voice for just another person. She had never encountered an AI like that at the facility.

„Not much of a talker, are we? Maybe I should just start off with an introduction. My name‘s Wheatley! I like your red clothes. They look way friendlier than all those white coats the other humans are wearing. They all just seem very boring, if you ask me.“

Her mind was racing a mile a minute. Not because she had trouble keeping up with what was being said, but because of the implications that came with her finding a core up here at the surface. Someone must have gone down to the facility and if they were down there, they wouldn‘t just pick up one core and leave. There had to be more.

„Are you picking me up for more tests? Because quite frankly I had enough of those. Already told the other guys, but now that I had the chance to think about it some more I‘d rather have someone to talk to, than be kept here all alone in this storage cabinet. So, if there are more tests waiting for me, I‘m ready!“

He just kept going and going. Chell was somewhat impressed, as he appeared to be even more talkative than Scout and she had spent some sleepless nights with the other where he had just told her one story after another. 

„Come to think of it, why are all the lights still off. Isn‘t it a bit hard to see? You could have just turned them on, I would do it for you if I … well, had any hands.“

In that moment she heard Scout‘s voice over the comm link, „Okay, I‘m here. Are ya still inside Porter?“

She wanted to respond, but her throat was tied shut. She couldn’t talk, not in front of the core. Wheatley‘s eye suddenly widened, „You just sneaked in, didn‘t you. You don‘t belong here! Listen, lady. I‘ve already been kidnapped once this week. I‘d really appreciate it, if it didn’t happen agai- oh … okay you‘re just picking me up.“

Chell had grabbed one of his handles and tucked the core under her left arm.

She couldn‘t just leave him here. First of all he must know something about what exactly was going on and second of all she might feel a little bit guilty about tossing all the other cores into the Aperture Science Emergency Intelligence Incinerator.

„Well you could at least tell me where we are going! Are you planning to download my code as well? Because the other blokes already tried that and that didn‘t turn out so well.“

Chell simply ignored his word and made her way to the exit.

She was back at the entrance of the shack and pressed her ear against the door. When she didn‘t hear anything she slowly opened it and came face to face with Scout.

„Oh shoot- There you are! I was about to try and break in that door.“, he was holding his baseball bat, „What did you do in there? We were kinda worri- What the hell is that?“ Scout had spotted Wheatley and the small core immediately greeted him with, „Hello! I‘m Wheatley. Are you here to kidnap me too?“ Scout didn‘t know what to say, which was a rather rare sight, and gave Chell a confused look.

„Good, you‘re back.“, Spy reappeared out of thin air, „Let‘s just get out of here.“

„Another friend of yours?“, Wheatley‘s blue eye kept going from Scout to Spy and back to Chell.

„What is that and why is it british?“, Spy sounded even angrier than before, „This was meant to be a recon mission! We‘re not even supposed to take anything. Especially not-“, Spy made some vague hand gestures, „whatever this is!“

„I have to agree, I‘d much rather not be stolen again. Already happened once this week and I must say I‘m not a big fan.“

Their conversation was cut short when a rocket suddenly hit the wall right next to the small group. A soldierbot had noticed them while they were arguing.

„Shit!“, Scout got back on his feet first, „Sniper! We‘ve been spotted! We need a little distraction.“ „Already on it, mate.“, just a few seconds later there was an explosion on the west side of the facility, „Hit an oil tank, that should keep them busy for a few seconds. Get out of there now, I‘m starting the engine.“ Scout used the diversion to quickly take out the soldierbot with his shotgun.

„You heard Sniper. Get us out of here!“, Chell gave Spy a short nod and activated her portal gun. At the sight of the weapon Wheatley‘s eye widened, „Wait. I know that. That is an Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device! Where did you get that?“

„God, someone get him to shut up, or more bots will notice us!“, hollered Scout over the sound of the now shrilling alarm.

Chell tried to spot the road sign in the distance, found it and quickly sent out the blue portal. „It‘s working! How is it working? They couldn‘t get it to work up here! Are you taking me back to Apert-“, Spy had sapped Wheatley before he could talk more and accidently give away their location. He was sending Chell a questioning look, clearly inquiring more about the meaning behind Wheatley's words, but Chell had already placed the orange portal on the ground and motioned for them to step through. 

Scout jumped in first, followed by Spy, who had reluctantly picked up the sapped core. Chell was the last to jump through. Once she landed on the ground next to the Gray Gravel Co. road sign, she immediately deactivated the gateway. The sound of the sirens was carried up the slopes of the valley and it nearly drained out the noise of the engine.

„What are you waiting for?“, Scout held the back door of the van open, „Come on, we gotta go!“ The van started to move while Chell was still running. She caught Scout‘s outstretched hand and he pulled her into the back of the truck. They both toppled over and landed on the floor. 

„What the bloody hell was that?“, they were both too out of breath to answer Sniper‘s question.

Spy was dusting off his suit, „Oh that? That was a disaster.“

„Ya know, normally everyone is just mad at me, because I messed up. So, I think you should come along more often.“, Scout was grinning at her, „Feels nice to not be the one responsible for the screw up for once.“

Normally she would have grinned back, or hit him with a witty retort, but right now she just felt drained and got up without saying another word. She let herself fall onto one of the seats and placed her hands inside her lap.

This wasn‘t supposed to happen. She had left the facility behind, escaped to a place where she was meant to be free. Why did she have to run right back into Aperture once she stepped foot outside of their base.

Spy had walked over, still holding the sapped core in his hands. He still seemed to be angry, but there also seemed to be a bit of concern in his expression.

He handed Wheatley over to her, „I hope this was worth it.“

Chell took the round robot and carefully placed it next to her.

She really hoped so too.


End file.
